The present invention relates to pulverizing apparatus for shredding, redistributing and compacting trash in an open top container, and more particularly to such apparatus which is adapted for self-propelled travel on a public street or a highway.
Upwardly open (i.e., open top) containers are typically used to receive various types of waste or trash (e.g., metal, plastic, paper, cardboard and the like), especially at businesses and warehouses, to allow waste accumulation. Once a container has been filled to its volumetric capacity, it is ready for hauling, typically over public streets and highways, to remote waste disposal or landfill sites. A major cost factor in waste disposal relates to this transport of the container back and forth between the collection site and the waste disposal site. Other factors are the charges imposed by the waste disposal site and municipal taxes, the latter typically being based upon the volume (rather than the weight) of the waste dumped.
The uncompacted waste in an open top container comprises various pieces of trash loosely lying on top of each other (compressed only by the weight of the upper layers of trash on the lower layers of trash) so that the overall density of the trash in the container is relatively low. This is especially true of construction debris, which is composed of juxtaposed wood, paper and metal products. Accordingly, the waste capacity of the container is typically limited not by the weight of the filled container (which is usually limited only by the rules on the gross vehicle weight (GVW) of the container-bearing truck and on the transport thereof over public streets and highways), but rather by the interior volume of the container. Due to the high cost involved in the transport of a container to and from the waste disposal site, transport of a volume-limited container is not as efficient as transport of a weight-limited container.
Bergmann, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,426,925 and 4,467,714, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose apparatus for compacting the trash in such an upwardly open container. These patents disclose a heavy compacting roller which moves to-and-fro on the trash in a container to compact the trash. The compacting roller is mounted on the free end of a pivot arm supported in an articulated manner from a post so that the compacting roller can rotate reciprocatingly and thereby drive itself back and forth over the trash within the container. The post on which the pivot arm (and hence the compacting roller) is mounted is located outside of the open top container, generally closely adjacent either a short end or long side of the container. While such systems effect economies by reducing the number of trips required between the container site and the waste disposal or landfill site (because the container filled with compacted trash contains a much greater weight of trash), such economies are partially offset by the expense involved in dedicating a compactor to each open top container.
More recently, in order to allow for amortization of the cost of the compactor over a number of open top containers at a given collection site, a compactor embodiment having limited mobility over tracks laid in the given collection site has been used to service a plurality of open top containers in the given collection site. External means are used to cause movement of the somewhat mobile compactor embodiment back and forth along the tracks to enable successive servicing of a plurality of open top containers disposed, one after the other, along one side of the tracks in the given collection site.
The degree of amortization provided by the somewhat mobile embodiment is limited by the number of open top containers which would normally be present at any collection site. Typically, the number of open top containers at a collection site does not provide full-time use of a compactor and thus limits the degree of amortization possible. Further, even the limited degree of amortization possible with the somewhat mobile embodiment comes at the price of a centralization of the waste containers at a given waste collection location. In a relatively large business or manufacturing plant of the type which might require a number of open top containers, the waste may be produced at a variety of different locations and then have to be transported to the given collection site containing the open top containers. The result of such a system is a bottleneck at the given collection site as waste is brought there from various other points in the plant as well as the need for an additional layer of transport facilities simply to transport the waste from the various locations at the plant where it is produced to the given collection site where the tracks and the compactor are located.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide in one preferred embodiment a fully mobile trash pulverizer suitable for travel on a public street or highway between a plurality of remote trash collection sites having open top containers.
Another object is to provide such a pulverizer which in one preferred embodiment is self-propelled and lawful for use on public streets and highways connecting remote trash collection sites.
A further object is to provide such a pulverizer which in one preferred embodiment has a cost that is amortizable over a plurality of open top containers disposed at a plurality of remote collection sites and does not require a central collection site in a large plant.
It is also an object to provide such a pulverizer which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, use and maintain.
It has now been found that the above and related objects of the present invention are obtained in a mobile trash pulverizer for shredding, redistributing and compacting trash in an open top container. The pulverizer comprises a self-propelled vehicle for travel on a public street or highway between a plurality of remote sites having open top containers containing trash to be pulverized. A rotatable, generally cylindrical, heavy roller defines a pair of opposed ends and a circumferential surface connecting the ends, the roller having a plurality of spaced apart cutters (e.g., blades) projecting outwardly from the circumferential surface for pulverizing trash during rotation of the roller. Means are provided for reversibly rotating the roller. Pivot arm means is carried by the vehicle for supporting and moving the roller between a transport orientation, wherein the roller is on the vehicle with the weight of the roller being substantially borne by the vehicle, and a use orientation, wherein the roller is in an open top container with the weight of the roller being substantially borne by the trash within the open top container, whereby rotation of the roller causes the roller to move along the interior length of the open top container and thereby shred, redistribute and compact trash therein.
Preferably, the pulverizer effects a 5:1 volumetric compaction of trash, the roller having a weight of at least 1,000 lbs, preferably at least 1xc2xd tons, and an axial length of about 6 feet.
In a preferred embodiment, the pivot arm means comprises a stationary mast having a first end fixedly secured to the vehicle and a second end projecting distally upwardly thereof, a first arm having a first end pivotally secured to the second end of the mast and a second end extending distally thereof, and a second arm having a first end pivotally secured to the second end of the first arm and a second end extending distally thereof and secured to the roller. Preferably, the pulverizer additionally includes means for enabling limited free pivotal movement of the second arm relative to the first arm and the first arm relative to the mast, such that the roller can move to-and-fro along the interior length of the open top container. The pivot arm means is configured and dimensioned to enable the roller to move to-and-fro along substantially the entire interior length of the container at the height of the interior floor of the container.
Preferably, the pulverizer additionally includes a manually actuatable hydraulic ram having a first end pivotally mounted on the mast and a reciprocating second end operatively secured to the first arm (via a paddle) for raising and lowering the same. The paddle has two opposed ends and a center therebetween, one end of the paddle being pivotally secured to the ram second end, the center of the paddle being pivotally mounted on the mast second end, and the opposite end of the paddle freely bearing against the first arm first end, whereby the paddle allows the first arm second end to freely float upwardly and downwardly relative to the mast while limiting the effect of upward movement of the ram second end. Preferably the first arm defines a dogleg adjacent the first end thereof such that, when the first arm is in a generally upright orientation, the second arm second end is closer to the front of the vehicle than it would without the dogleg, thereby to enable the roller in the container to reach closer to the proximal end of the container than it would without the dogleg, and, when the first arm is in a generally horizontal orientation, the roller to be in the transport orientation.
The first arm adjacent the second end and the second arm adjacent the first end cooperatively define facing arm bumpers projecting toward one another to prevent the roller from contacting the mast and the ram. Arm attachment means releasably lock together the first and second arms, the arm attachment means being operative during movement of the roller between the use orientation and the transport orientation and during motion of the vehicle. The arm-attachment means is a preferably pintle hook-and-eye system, including a manually releasable lock on the hook.
In another preferred embodiment, the vehicle has a front axle mounting a pair of wheels and two rear axles, each rear axle mounting a pair of wheels, the mast means being mounted on the vehicle intermediate the two rear axles and inboard of the rear axle wheels. When the roller is in the transport orientation, the junction of the first arm and the second arm projects rearwardly behind the back of the vehicle (i.e., the vehicle bumper) by not more than ⅔ of the wheel base of the vehicle, and the maximum height of the pulverizer is less than 13 feet, 9 inches above the ground. The vehicle preferably defines at the upper rear thereof a gatorback formed of a plurality of transversely extending ridges increasing in height toward the front of the vehicle, whereby, when the roller is properly positioned and rotating in the proper direction, the roller will at least partially crawl up the gatorback.
The present invention also encompasses, in combination, the pulverizer and an open top container containing trash.